Hopeless
by InjusticeLeague
Summary: What happens to the survivors after they get home? Melissa Jackson. Mostly Jackson. Sad and Romantic. I hope you like it. Very sensitive story.
1. Chapter 1 Arrival

The typhoon was far off in the distance now. Melissa sat in the seat opposite Jackson. When they had first gotten on the plane it was all good. Melissa chattered on about how much she missed home and school, and her big comfy bed. But soon after, when she started talking about her parents, he fell silent. At first she didn't notice, until a couple minutes had passed, he hadn't said a word. she turned around to look at him, but he just staring out the tiny window into the sunset. That was 2 hours ago, he hadn't spoken since. Oh no. What had she done. She had certainly offended him by chattering endlessly about her parents, when he hardly knew his own.

Jackson's thoughts were different. Of course when he had started not speaking, it was because of being bummed about this whole situation with the foster homes. He was so fed up of being unwanted, all of his foster families had him for like 2 months before they got sick of , the problem child. It wasn't his fault he had 2 faced friends, well former friends anyway. They had well, changed him, he really wasn't bad, just a loner.

But that's not what worried him now, he was worried about what awaited him when he got home. They would send his away from the Farsens, his current foster family. He hadn't seen his real mom since he was 7, on that dreaded day when they dragged him away from everyone he loved, and shoved him in a dirty, shack of an orphanage. He remembered those days, he didn't speak for 4 months strait. Until thy send him to a doctor, because they thought he couldn't speak. So to prove it, he kicked the headmaster of the orphanage and said, Ha! The next day he was "deported" to a foster family in another state.

And even worse, he would most likely get send to juvi, or even prison. For the crime that he had quote" committed". Never. As the plane began to touch into the city limits, he shook. All of these kids, their future was so sure, they would all be loved and spoiled rotten to make up for what happened. But what would his future hold?

As predicted, all of the others ran off the plane into their parents loving arms. He gulped, he was the last on to exit the plane. A social worker walked up to him then pointed to the object that had been holding his attention. All of them were a little bit aware of the flashing blue and red lights of the police car. Jackson walked up to it with his most unfrightened expression. A hefty officer handcuffed his and shoved his roughly into the back seat.

Trying not to look scared of of mind and depressed, he smirked at the officer, who nodded back. " Cody Jackson we meet again."

Jackson coughed, " I go by Jackson now."

" We don't refer to criminals by nicknames."

" And you arrested me why? I'm not a criminal, yet. What have I done.

" You have a record kid. When a guy like you is found fleeing from the scene of a crime, it usually means that you did it." Jackson scowled at him through the rearview mirror.

He really didn't want to talk about it right now, he was burning inside. So he changed the subject. " Nice welcoming committee officer Randal, I was expecting at least like, a fruit basket. You know, after being stranded on a deserted island, almost dying of a tropical illness, I feel really loved."

When they arrived at the police station, the officers were quick to throw him in a cell. Now this brought back bad memories. One's of his lonely days in the cold orphanage, huddled under rags of blankets, trying to make his horrible life disappear behind him. It worked sometimes, but when he lifted the blankets after hours, it was still just him in a cold, dark room with 50 beds in it. Just his stupid life. He let just a few tears escape before falling asleep on the cold, wet mattress. Innocence robbed.


	2. Chapter 2 Nobody Knows Him

Melissa lay awake on her bed, not having any purpose of getting up. She had wanted to introduce Jackson to her parents, but when she saw that cop car she just knew. As she saw Jackson getting off that plane, she could tell he was putting on a brave face. She was pretty sure she was the only one who could really tell he was scared. And just as the cop locked him up in those handcuffs, he slipped for just a moment. Exposing the sheer terror of the unknown in his eyes. She couldn't get that image out of her head. It had kept her up all night.

There was a quiet knock on her bedroom door. " Melissa wake up sweetie, you're home." her mother said warmly.

She could feel the love in her mom's voice, but she was still bummed. " I already am." she said flatly.

" Then come downstairs for breakfast, Melissa."

She groaned, rolling out of bed lazily. Her mother was cheerful at the breakfast table. " So Melissa, what would you like to do today?"

She knew her parents would hate this, but it was true, " Umm.. Can I go see my friend Jackson, from the plane crash?"

" Who was that Honey?" her father asked, chewing on a waffle.

She took in a deep breath, " He was the one who got.. Arrested." She tried to say it as calmly as possible.

The waffle bite flew across the room. Her father was steaming. " I do not ever want you associating with the likes of that punk, do you hear me?! Never!" She gulped, he was really mad.

She tried to reason with him, " But dad, Jackson's arrest was all a big misunderstanding. I mean, they just thought that he did it because he was seen fleeing from an attempted murder, and has a record." Her father was red, her mother concerned. Alright, maybe she shouldn't have mentioned murder, or his record. " But he's a good guy, honest, and he was like, my best friend on the island.

" Maybe because he had nowhere to sharpen his knife." Mr. Wu muttered.

" Dad!" she screamed. " You just think that... You don't know him... You'll never understand... You're so close minded!" she ran up the stairs to her bedroom, locking the door. She cried into her pillow. Her dad was just like everybody else, assuming he was some kind of monster. He had a rough past, so what? Nobody ever cared, nobody ever even tried to open their eyes and notice. Nobody was ever nice enough to get to know, to try to befriend. Nobody ever saw the personality behind the hard shell. Nobody saw the Real, cody Jackson.


	3. Chapter 3 Understanding

There was a quiet knock on Melissa's bedroom door. " Mom," melissa moaned," I don't want to talk about it." Outside the door, she could hear her mom fiddling with the handle.

" Please Melissa, will you let me in?" her mother asked in a gentle voice. She sighed unlocking the door, the throwing herself back onto the bed. as she did, she could hear her old bed creak as her mother sat down on the edge.

As usual, she tried to defend Mr. Wu. " Oh come on sweetie, your father only wants what's best for you. And to be honest, I have to agree with him. That boy is a dangerous hoodlum. " Melissa turned red.

She wiped around furiously to glare at her mother. " Mom! You've never even met him! All my life, you and Dad always told me, Don't judge others, Never listen to stereotypes. Now look at yourself! You've never spoken to him, you only saw a glimpse of him for what, 6 seconds. You didn't spend a month stranded with him on an island. You have no clue!" with that, she trust herself back into her pillow, sobbing.

Her mother was a little bit shell shocked, Melissa had never spoken to her like that before. If Melissa was this furious, she must have been missing some crucial information. Having thought about it, she turned back to Melissa. " Alright then, if I'm so clueless, then I guess I was just misinformed, so tell me Melissa, what am I missing? What do I not know about your friend, that makes him a good person?"

Melissa sat up, sniffling. " Well, like I said, his arrest was just a big misunderstanding. Basically, Jackson grew up in a rough neighborhood. When he was 7, they took him away from his mom, and put him in foster care. He was really depressed, and living in a real dump, so he joined a gang, not to be a cruel person though. Because, he was afraid the gangs would beat him up if he didn't . So the, when that guy got stabbed, he was with them. They all ran away, but the guy was his friend, so he stayed. And so they thought he did it. End of story."

Her mother nodded." Alright, that makes it a little clearer, So I guess you can go visit him, seeing as it doesn't sound like anyone else is planning to.

Melissa leaped off her bed, squeezing her mom in a tight hug." Thank you so much!!!" her mother smiled. She pulled on a sweater, and began bounding down the stairs at top speed. She raced out to the garage, leaping onto her bike, and speeding away toward the police station. In only minutes, she would get to see Jackson again!

Meanwhile, her father stormed off to her mom. " Did I just hear you tell Melissa that it was alright to go visit that little dirt-bag?!" She only shrugged and nodded. She had completely misjudged him, how wrong of her. Melissa should have brought the poor thing a present.

After not getting any response from his wife, Mr. Wu just walked away, very confused.


	4. Chapter 4 Visit

Melissa was breathing hard as she halted at the front desk. A slight women with fire-red hair looked up at her, " Yes?" she asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

Melissa swallowed hard under the secretary's glare, " I'm here to visit someone."

"Who." the secretary asked, clearly bored.

" Cody Jackson."

The secretary looked a little surprised, like she wasn't expecting him to have any visitors any time soon. She fumbled with the pager, " Officer Randal to the front desk."

The same hefty officer from yesterday came into view. As an almost instant reaction, Melissa pouted at him, a full blown glare would not be to appropriate. " What is it?"

This girl wants to go see Cody Jackson, is he permitted to have any visitors?"

" Well of course, but I don't see why anyone would want to see that little dirt-bag." He turned to face Melissa for the first time, she didn't appear to be part of any sort of crime. Did that guy hang out with her?

He turned to her," Right this way ma'am."

________________________________________________________________

Jackson was in the corner of his cell, staring at the blank wall opposite him. He sighed, why was he in here, he hadn't done anything wrong. This time. I guess it as fair to assume he had something to do with the crime, because of his previous record. He had been to juvi 4 times since he was 12. The first time was for holding up the gas station, because his "friends" dared him to. The second was for just well, hanging out with bad people in a bad neighborhood. The other 2 were for getting into fights at his old schools.

Some people may think he was bad guy, getting into all those fights. But those guys were the bad ones. One time an entire football team pummeled his in the alley beside the school, the principle did nothing about it. The next day he went up to the team captain, and... The next day he was, one again, on the bus to juvi-hall.

Sometimes Jackson had some pretty dark thoughts, but who could blame him. When a gang of 8 guys twice your age will kill you if you step within their territory, or just without reason sometimes. Life was a scary thing.

He ran his hand through his hair, what was he going to do? Even if he did get out of this mess, he had nowhere to go. He might as well just curl up in a corner and die. As far as he knew, his mom was dead, he hadn't spoken to her since he was 7. nobody would want to take him in after this. And those gangs would most likely be out, searching for him. Things had told him they weren't done with him quite yet. They would murder him as soon as they got the chance. he gulped.

Just then Officer Randel came down the hall, " Cody Jackson you have a visitor." He started sweating, what if it was it was the gang leader, Smithy? Had he come to finish the job. Just as they rounded the corner, he saw Melissa.

Oh no! This was worse than Smithy, she had probably came to disown him as a friend. What would she say when she saw him behind bars? It would probably start with: _You little punk, I hate your guts, you filthy criminal! _ All he could hope for, for the moment, was that he could hold back the tears as he lost his only real friend. That probably wouldn't even work out, considering a single tear rolled down his cheek as Melissa laid her hand on the cool steal bars of the cell.


	5. Chapter 5 Bummed

Melissa held the cell bars in her hands. all she could see was Jackson, he was cowering in the corner, was he crying? Melissa wondered about this, even if this was Jackson, she would cry her guts out in his situation. Taking a deep breath, he turned around.

He was pale, his hair was tangled from a restless sleep. He looked down at the floor. It had only been a day, but he looked different, scary even.

He finally looked up, she immediately looked away. The second she saw his eyes, she wanted to hug him and cry. all she wanted to do right now was to comfort him. His normally piercing, yet warm eyes had changed. In his blue/green eyes, she could see the pain of torture. This was the exact opposite of his usual, if looks could kill, expression, the one that made others shy away from him. now it was more like he was killing himself, all that pain, it caused herself pain even to look at him, but she had to, she needed to comfort him, soon.

He sighed, " So, aren't you going to start screaming at me for being a sadistic criminal?"

" What?"

" Well isn't that what you're here for, to tell me you hate my guts."

" No never, I actually came here to talk to you, just to talk."

Melissa sat at a little table looking at Jackson through glass, a phone in both of their hands.

Melissa wanted to keep the conversation light." So.. umm... This is a police station, not a jail, why do they even have one of these things?"

Jackson just merely shrugged.

" So how long are they keeping you here?"

" Well, I think I'm the only suspect."

" Why, haven't they interviewed you, or asked the guy who got hurt?"

" I really don't want to talk to that guy, and the guys in coma." he said flatly.

Melissa nodded, he had allot going on. " So, what happens if you get convicted, juvi?"

" Nah, I think juvi's had enough of me. Plus I think that 15 is legally old enough to go to jail. They sent me there at first last time, I was only there for a day before a middle aged guy snapped my leg in half, so I got off easy at juvi. But, I think they don't let compulsive repeat offenders in, especially if the word "Murder" is evolved.

Poor Jackson, he wasn't talking to them, so there was a slim chance she would ever see him again after the trial.

" Jackson, you look pretty bummed." It wasn't a question.

" Well, I'm an orphan, kind of, I'm going to jail for a crime I didn't do. A guy twice my age is going to kill me there. And even if I got off, those guys are going to kill me, And even if they got caught trying to kill me, other guys would, or I'd at least be beaten into a smear on the sidewalk....... Yeah, life's peachy."

That night Melissa had a plan, it wouldn't solve all his problems, but at least it might cheer him up for a while, she hoped.


	6. Chapter 6 Phone Call

As soon as Mel got home she rushed to her bedroom, grabbing the phone as she made her way hastily up the stairs. She flopped down on her bed, already half-way through dialing.

**Phone Convo:**

Nathan: Hello?

Melissa: Nathan! Thank God! I went to see Jackson at the station today.

Nathan: Cool! I can't believe your parents let you go!

Melissa: Yeah, well at first my dad was all; You want to go see that little dirt bag in prison??!! It took like an hour of crying to let me go, but I did.

Nathan: ( Laughs!) So, how is he, I can imagine not good ?

Melissa: Worse! He looks like he's suicidal! ( Cries a little bit)

Nathan: Awe, common Mel, he'll be alright, as soon as he tells them who did it.

Melissa: N..No.. Nathan, he doesn't want to talk to them

Nathan: ( Clearly unsure) It's okay Mel. Even if he does get convicted, it'll only be a little while, I hope.

Melissa: no Nathan, he said this time, they're sending him to Jail, and the guys there are going to kill him, ( Cries harder)

Nathan: Umm.. Well, all I can do is say that what ever happens, all of us are rooting for him.

Melissa: Can you do me a favor?

Nathan: Yeah, sure.

Melissa: Tomorrow at school, can you tell everyone to meet me at lunch, I have an idea...

Nathan: Sure, what's the plan?

Melissa: Just a way to cheer Jackson up.

**First of all, sorry this chapter is so short! Second; I have an idea about what Melissa's plan is, but I want your ideas. If you have one, submit it, I want at Least 5 ideas submitted before i publish the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7 Meeting

**First off, I want to thank disneyqueen for being the only one to review the last chapter! Sorry it took me so long to update, we had a lot of mid term tests! But now it's spring break, so I'll try to update allot soon! **

Everyone sat around their lunch table in the courtyard. All a little puzzled by the anouncement Melissa was going to make. What could it be? All Nathan had sad was that it was about jackson, and that he was doing really bad. They were also a little flustered by the whole environment, this whole school thing was really different from their last month on the tropical island. Everyone sat around chattering aimlessly in small groups, even Lex had bravely crossed over into the high school portion of the school.

Melissa walked out, they all imeadiately silenced. She looked glum, staring at the ground. She sighed, then looked up at the intent and curoius eyes staring at her.

" Alright everyone, so as Nathan may have told you, I wnet and saw Jackson yesterday. And, as you may have suspected, he's not doing good, and that's an enormous understatement."

That was quickly followed with a flurry of questions. " What do you mean Mel? Is he alright? What can we do?"

" Well, that's what I wanted to talk about, you see, I have a plan." She took a deep breath and began, " Well, when we got off the plane, and Jackson got taken away, I could see he was really hurting. And I really got to know him on the island, so I found some things out about him. One of those things being that his only real constant has been music, and that's the only thing that has kept him from a deep depresion all these years. And so I went up to Captain Russel, and I asked him what he planned to do with his guitar. And he said that he no longer felt conected to it, and it held bad memories for him. So I asked if Jackson could have it."

She was interupted by Eric, " So, what are you planning on doing with the thing now that Chief's in the slammer?" Nathan shot him a sharp glare.

" Well, I was planning on giving it to him when he got out, I figured he'd only be in there for like, one night."

Lex looked up at her, fear and confusion in his eyes. " So, what are you saying, Mel? IS Jackson going to get out?"

Melissa, shook a lttle bit, a single tear sliding down her cheek. " Umm.. Jackson told me that.. that, that he may not get out this time. He said they will send hi to jail, because there's no other suspects. And the guy that got hurt is in a coma. And he refuses to even talk to the police for fear he will get shot by the other members of the gang if he testifies against their leader."

She was having a full out breakdown now. Dayley rubbed her back. " Don't worry it'll be okay. Jackson is inocent, he'll be fine." But no one was convinced.

After a few minutes of this, Melissa stood again. She sniffed loudly and then continued, " This is maddening! You're all comforting ME, mean while Jackson's in a prison cell, most likely contemplating suicide!" That shut everyone up. The worry was clear on their faces.

Lex was crying a little bit, " But Mel, what.. what can we do?" he sniffed.

" Well, I was thinking that today after school we could all go visit him, and I can give him that guitar, maybe that'll cheer him up a little bit. But, as far as getting him to confess who did the crime, well, I have a thought..."

To be continued...

**Can someone reply this time, I want more that one, the faster you reply, the faster I update!!!!!**


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